KL shares close mixed

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia closed mixed yesterday with gains in finance counters helped push the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index slightly higher.

The benchmark index rose 0.26 of a point to close at 1,818.86 after moving between 1,816.76 and 1,821.57 points throughout the day.

Market breadth was negative with losers outpacing gainers by 415 to 325, with 341 counters unchanged, 550 untraded and 15 others were suspended.

Volume fell to 1.70 billion shares worth RM2.15 billion from 1.71 billion shares worth RM2.21 billion yesterday.

Mercury Securities head of research, Edmund Tham, said sentiment was fragile following China’s release of weak economic data.

“From the total volume transacted, we can see the market is a bit quiet as investors stayed mostly on the sidelines in the absence of positive market-moving news,” he told Bernama.

On the scoreboard, the Finance Index increased 22.54 points to 16,382.53.

The Plantation Index lost 51.71 points to 8,926.36 and the Industrial Index fell 4.34 points to 3,169.22.

The FBM Emas dropped 6.72 points to 12,605.93, FBMT100 decreased 4.75 points to 12,272.89, FBM 70 declined 30.76 points to 13,858.61 and the FBM Ace fell 0.58 of a point to 6,638.39.

Among actives, Infortech Alliance fell six sen to 39 sen, KNM-WA added 1.5 sen to 20.5 sen and Iris Corp rose half-a-sen to 59 sen.

Of the heavyweights, Maybank was flat at RM9.51, Tenaga Nasional rose two sen to RM11.94 and CIMB added seven sen to RM7.09.

The main market volume rose to 1.28 billion units valued at RM1.98 billion from 1.27 billion units valued at RM2.11 billion on Wednesday.

Turnover on the ACE market fell to 393.47 million shares worth RM166.03 million from 413.55 million shares worth RM98.42 million yesterday.

Warrants increased to 22.21 million units valued at RM2.19 million from 20.57 million units valued at RM2.63 million on Wednesday.

Consumer products accounted for 167.32 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 322.5 million, construction 60.11 million, trade and services 422.05 million, technology 26.19 million, infrastructure 27.42 million, SPAC 33.89 million, finance 50.22 million, hotels 392,900, properties 130.17 million, plantations 27.6 million, mining 5,000, REITs 11.33 million and closed/fund 11,000. — Bernama